The initial location and setup of any telecommunication component at a geographic location or alternatively cell site may be guided by data collected prior to construction. Additional post construction data may be useful to monitor performance metrics of the installed components in the cell site. The results of the post construction data may require adjustments to the orientation of antennae, changes/calibration to other installed support equipment, instrumentation upgrades, and/or changes to maintenance schedules in order to effect optimal system performance over time. Typical data of interest includes, but is not limited to, signal integrity, signal power level and electromagnetic interference (EMI).
Data of various sorts may be collected near a cell tower or at a distance from it. Optimal system performance of components or networks is often dynamic due to changes in the physical and radio frequency (RF) environments in close proximity to sites and changes to the physical and RF environments distant from sites. Dynamic changes can occur due to the time of the day (propagation characteristics), transient objects or obstacles that come and go in the site area, and the like.
Traditionally, data collection used to test and optimize RF and microwave networks has been accomplished by using a ground vehicle or a pedestrian equipped with an on-the-ground data collection receiver unit. Other performance data, such as passive intermodulation (“PIM”) data is usually obtained by climber or riggers on a cell tower. Such methods have proven to be somewhat adequate but expensive. Such methods may also be limited due to their ability to collect data in only two dimensions simultaneously.
Ground vehicle data is restricted to a limited height above ground level of the collection unit. In rural and obstructed urban environments, it can be extremely difficult to collect signal and PIM data quickly, accurately and comprehensively. Hence, there is a need for systems and methods to collect electromagnetic signal data in a variety of three dimensional environments surrounding both signal transmitters and signal reception sites at near and far distances, and at various times.